As pandemic statistics continue to rise and the Delta strain of COVID-19 sweeps the nation, St. Louis County councilwoman Shalonda Webb is prioritizing one mitigation measure over another.
Webb was among those who declined to impose a mandate requiring masking indoors in public places on Aug. 10, but a few days later the Democrat representing District 4 submitted a proposal that would require county employees and contractors be vaccinated or wear a mask and test for the coronavirus regularly, according to media reports.
Clay Goddard, Missouri Foundation for Health’s senior director of public health transformation, isn’t surprised.
“We're seeing that the Delta strain can cause breakthrough infections even in vaccinated individuals and so, the more mitigation and layers that you build in, the less that the virus is going to be able to infect others but some of those mitigation measures are bumping into civil liberties,” Goddard told the St. Louis Record.
“That's what you're seeing at play here is that elected officials are choosing one mitigation measure over the others and that being vaccination.”
Webb and council chairwoman Rita Days have proposed employing a mobile health unit in north St. Louis County along with a holistic wellness center to treat mental illness and carry out vaccine hesitancy initiatives with $50 million in Recovery Act funds, according to Fox News.
“Vaccine mandates are not anything new,” Goddard said. “They’ve been upheld by federal courts and the Supreme court as early as 1906. So, we have a history of institutions and employers requiring a vaccine to attend schools or to work in certain professions. Obviously, they have become a political issue as well as much of the pandemic has.”
Vaccine hesitancy is defined by the National Institutes of Health as refusing or delaying acceptance of a vaccine that is readily available.
Webb did not immediately respond to requests for comment but she told MSN that she was concerned a mask mandate would cause chaos or put gasoline on a fire.
“It's going to be a very fluid situation with a variety of mitigation approaches used and with the FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine product, I think you'll see the vaccine approach become more common,” Goddard added.
“Some organizations like health systems are requiring masks for visitors and employees but, when you get into individual organizations, it might be a little bit different than a governmental mandate, which is applied to all citizens.”